Knowing The Wizards ’09 Summer League Team: Part 1

With the Wizards set to being summer league play in Las Vegas on Tuesday, the team has been holding a mini-camp in D.C. for the players on the team. The camp began on Saturday and will finish on Monday. Both the Washington Post and Washington Times have first day wrap-ups posted on their respective Wizards blogs, but with limited media access (essentially being able to watch the players shoot), there wasn’t much to report.

Both Bullets Forever and Ridiculous Upside previously posted some quick facts about the players on the summer league roster, but I wanted to dive a bit deeper, not only to find out what type of player each is, but also what composes their background.

Part one will focus on James Lang, John Edwards, Alex Ruoff, and Jimmy Baron. Lang, who previously spent time with the Wizards, gets a more formal write up. The rest of them get a short-cut … bullet points.

James Lang (A ‘Should’ve Gone To College’ Case)

[6’10” power forward/center – second round draft pick out of high school, pro basketball vagabond]

In the summer of 2002, Lang, at a rotund 300+ pounds and out of Birmingham, AL, was touted as one of the best big men at the adidas ABCD camp in New Jersey. He was being recruited by the likes of Louisville, Alabama and North Carolina. By the time Lang committed to Rick Pitino and Louisville, he was rumored to weigh in at 335 pounds. Talk about Dinner Bells.

The commitment to the Cardinals wasn’t solid though. He subsequently visited Kentucky and Alabama, but was more so swayed by the dollar signs of the NBA in his eyes. But while scouts and recruiting services (many of which dubbed him the top center in the class of ’03) drooled over his great hands and potential, he drooled over the buffet. There were even rumors that he’d ballooned to 400 pounds at one point during his high school career, but is said to have shed at least 100 of those at some point during his senior year.

By the time he was named a ’03 McDonald’s All-American, finishing with 15 points and 10 rebounds in the game, his desire to enter the NBA draft was set, aided by “academic concerns” of course. He formally announced his draft intentions on May 10, 2003.

He was signed by New Orleans, but spent all of his time on the IR, and was waived by January of 2004. Since, he’s been a basketball vagabond from Utah to Toronto to Atlanta to Arkansas to Spain to Portland to Israel to China to Oklahoma to Asheville, the highlight of his career appearing in 11 NBA games for the Wizards in 2006-07.

He was 7’0″ upon graduating from high school but was so uncoordinated that absolutely no one recruited him. He walked on at Kent State, redshirted his freshman year, worked hard, and eventually earned a scholarship.

From absolutely no expectations to starting all 31 games, averaging 26.1 minutes his senior season at Kent State, Edwards won the MAC Defensive Player of the Year (and was an all conference first teamer). The guy has made his basketball career on a ton of hustle.

He went undrafted by the NBA, but was drafted by the Gary Steelheads of the CBA. In addition to time spent with the Indiana Pacers and the Atlanta Hawks, he’s played for the Albuquerque Thunderbirds, Tulsa 66ers, SK Cherkassy Monkeys (Ukraine), Sioux Falls Skyforce, and Iowa Energy.

For one game on November 20, 2004, because of the Malice at the Palace, he was the only player on the bench for the Indiana Pacers, but only played for 15 minutes, taking three shots, making one, grabbing one rebound, and committing three fouls. Two weeks later on December 3rd, he played a career high 31 minutes (which accounted for over 22% of his total minutes played in 04-05), and scored a career high 9 points.

Jimmy turned 23 on May 23rd and shares a birthday with Rasual Butler, Rod Thorn, Jordan Zimmerman of the Nationals, and Cleveland comedian Drew Carey.

Majored in communications, minored in oceanography.

Jimmy played for the Utah Jazz in the Orlando Summer League — over 5 games, he saw about 50 minutes on the court, scored 13 total points (8 came in one game), went 3-7 from downtown, and had 2 assists.

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Truth About It.net, Washington Wizards Blog, ESPN TrueHoop Network -- Following the D.C. pro basketball franchise since the 90s and covering them in blog form since 2007 -- Opinion, Analysis, Irreverence, Pictures, Video, Interviews, Photoshops, News, Video, Quotes, Shares, and all the pixels about the Washington Wizards you can imagine.